Last Friday, my wife took her 2006 Highlander to the shop she’s used since buying it for scheduled maintenance. Should have been an oil service and timing belt replacement, but they found that the rack and pinion was leaking badly and she decided to have them replace it. They did so, but then called to report a strange behavior - when they put the key in the ignition and turned it, the steering wheel turned all the way to the right for no apparent reason. They contacted Toyota and were told it was probably a bad part, so they did the work again with new parts. No change. Another Toyota contact told them that, despite the odds, it was still probably a bad part, so they replaced the rack and pinion a third time. Again, no change. They then installed the old rack and pinion, and the strange behavior continued. They’ve now had the car for 3 full days, and are no closer to getting it fixed than they were when they started. I have two questions about this: First, does anyone have any clue what could cause this behavior? Second, how should we handle this with the garage? I think they should be obligated to return her car in a safe and driveable condition, since that’s how it was when she gave it to them. Even with a leaky rack and pinion, the car was driveable. With this uncommanded full right turn behavior, it’s not. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Thanks.
Correction and clarification - it’s a 2006, and she took it to the shop last Friday. We bought it in 2006, and she’s been using this shop since then.
Presumably, this car has electrically-assisted power steering.
Am I correct?
If that is the case, I would suspect that the wiring was damaged somehow during the rack replacement.
I believe that is correct, VDCdriver, but I don’t know for sure. From what I’ve found online, it sounds like that was around the time Toyota started using electrical assist.
Problem SOLVED!!! First, it is not electrically-assisted power steering, so my response to VDCdriver was incorrect - sorry. It’s plain old hydraulic power steering. Now for the underwhelming solution… Apparently Toyota updated the rack and pinion somehow and it affected the installation process - but they didn’t communicate that part very well. Our mechanic was not aware of it, nor were the Toyota mechanics he contacted, nor was the service team he spoke to at the Toyota dealership. He had specifically asked if there was anything different he needed to do when installing the replacement parts and was told that there was not. That one wrong answer ultimately added 3 days and 4 rack and pinion assemblies to the repair job. Hopefully Toyota will make it right with our mechanic, because he certainly made it right with us.